It's time for another round of my pointless, pointless attempt to rebalance the Tyranid codex. The previous installment covered universal rules, psychic powers, biomorphs, and HQ units, and this one will go over the all-important Elites and
HIVE GUARD BROOD..... 60pts per model
4 4 5 6 2 3 2 7 4+
1-3 Hive Guard
Infantry
Claws and Teeth
Impaler Cannon
Hardened Carapace
Instinctive Behavior- Lurk
Comments: Yes, they got worse. See, that's how things work when you rebalance something- bad things get better and good things get worse.
LICTOR BROOD..... 55pts per model
6 4 6 4 3 6 3 10 4+
1-3 Lictors
Infantry
Chameleonic Skin
Flesh Hooks
Hardened Carapace
Rending Claws
Scything Talons
Instinctive Behavior- Lurk
Fleet
Hit and Run
Move Through Cover
Pheremone Trail
Stealth
Uncanny Reflexes
Chameleonic Skin
A Lictor brood always starts the game in reserve, even in missions where reserves are not normally used. When it becomes available, place it anywhere on the table as per the Deep Strike rules, but do not roll for scatter. Furthermore, if the enemy shoots at a Lictor, they must always check for sight distance as per the Night Fight rules.
Pheremone Trail
Each brood of Lictors selected allows you to reroll a single failed reserve roll each turn. Units deploying by Deep Strike within 6" of a Lictor will not roll to scatter, although this ability will not take effect until the Lictor itself has been on the battlefield for a full turn.
Flesh Hooks
A model with Flesh Hooks counts as having Assault Grenades. They may also be fired during the shooting phase using the following profile:
6" S6 AP- Assault 2, Rending
Uncanny Reflexes
A Lictor has a 5+ invulnerable save against all attacks.
Comments: And speaking of getting better...
Lictors were a good example of a unit with a solid, obvious purpose and intent behind their design that... just failed to come together. Too many poorly-worded rules and gaps in their ability left them struggling to accomplish... well, anything, really. With the application of a number of tweaks, they improve a lot. +1BS insures they can more reliably suppress tanks when they arrive. Night Fight at all times keeps their vulnerability to heavy weapons down. Pheremone Trail working while off the board makes them a useful part of a reserve list. Finally, a 4+/5++ insure they won't simply die horrible deaths once they get into a fight.
DEATHLEAPER..... 140pts
9 4 6 4 3 7 4 10 4+
1 Deathleaper (Unique)
Infantry
Chameleonic Skin
Flesh Hooks
Hardened Carapace
Rending Claws
Scything Talons
Instinctive Behavior- Lurk
Fleet
Hit and Run
"It's After Me!"
Killing Strike
Move Through Cover
Stealth
"They Cut the Power!"
Uncanny Reflexes
"What was That?"
"Where is It?"
"Where'd It Go?"
Killing Strike
Deathleaper's attacks will ignore armor saves on a to-wound roll of 4+ and roll an additional d3 penetration on the same, rather than just on a 6 as normal.
"They Cut the Power!"
As long as Deathleaper is alive, the enemy must subtract -1 from all reserve rolls. Enemy Locator Beacons, Icons, and other wargear and rules that prevent models from scattering will not function while within 24" of Deathleaper.
"Where is It?"
When checking the Night Fight distance to see Deathleaper, halve the final result.
Comments: Deathleaper got some of the same upgrades as the basic Lictor did (BS4, 4+/5++), but also a few unique ones of its own. I gave it the ability to rend a bit more often (on 4s rather than 5s) so that it would actually be dangerous in close combat- as a singular model with not all that many attacks, it needs to make each of them relatively dangerous if it wants to do its job. I also changed him to be more of a disruption unit than a support unit like basic Lictors- all of his abilities penalize the enemy in one way or another. Being that he wasn't all that bad before, I decided those changes were enough to make him usable as it stood.
VENOMTHROPE BROOD..... 55pts per model
3 0 4 4 2 3 2 6 5+
1-3 Venomthropes
Infantry
Lash Whips
Reinforced Chitin
Toxic Miasma
Instinctive Behavior- Feed
Spore Cloud
Toxic Touch
The brood may take a Mycetic Spore as a dedicated transport.
Spore Cloud
All units within 6" of a Venomthrope have a 4+ cover save. They also gain the benefits of Defensive Grenades and any enemy charging them must test for Difficult and Dangerous terrain, even if moving through open terrain.
Comments: Not a lot of changes here, really; Venomthropes were good before, they just suffered from being in competition with Hive Guard. The cover save on Spore Cloud was improved to be more useful, but since you can still single out Venomthropes it's unlikely to last for more than a turn or two. In theory, that's all you need, though. An earlier version worked like Shrouding, handing out Stealth and a smaller cover save if you didn't have cover, but I realized that was a bit too much fairly early on- MCs with 3+ cover and Gaunts going to ground for 2+ is a bit excessive.
ZOANTHROPE BROOD... 60pts per model
3 4 4 4 2 3 1 10 5+
1-3 Zoanthropes
Infantry
Claws and Teeth
Reinforced Chitin
Synapse Creature (Warp Vision)
Psyker
Shadow in the Warp
Warp Field
Warp Blast
Warp Lance
Synapse Creature (Warp Vision)
A Zoanthrope is a Synapse Creature. In addition, Tyranid units within 6" may double the number on the dice when rolling for Night Fighting.
Any member of the brood may exchange its Warp Lance power for:
Catalyst..... 10pts
Dominion...... free
Leech Essence..... free
Onslaught..... free
Paroxysm..... free
Psychic Scream..... free
The brood may take a Mycetic Spore as a dedicated transport.
Comments: While I liked the changes to the new Zoey, having the option to field them in a variety of roles was always fun and, in general, I dislike units that have no options. With this version, if you want to bring psychic powers on the cheap, Zoanthropes are where it's at- hell, you can bring broods full of Catalyst if you want and buff up the whole team. You can make the old Psychic Choir list (albeit without the ability to reduce enemy Ld quite as far). You can cripple enemy WS/BS across the board or push your whole army forward more quickly. Zoeys aren't just heavy tank hunters; they're Synapse utility and psychic power carriers, like they're supposed to be. However, their 3++ goes down to a 4++ in the bargain, which still ends up being pretty good protection. Just don't let the enemy spam torrent shooting at them, or use Catalyst if they do.
THE DOOM OF MALANTAI..... 100pts
4 4 X 4 4 4 3 10 5+
1 Doom (unique)
Infantry
Claws and Teeth
Reinforced Chitin
Instinctive Behavior- Feed
Absorb Life
Fearless
Psychic Strength
Psyker
Shadow in the Warp
Spirit Leech
Warp Shield
Cataclysm
Warp Shield
The Doom of Malan'tai has a 3+ invulnerable save.
The Doom of Malan'tai may take a Mycetic Spore as a dedicated transport.
Comment: This guy is still around. Same as before, but 10pt price bump because the reserve list doesn't suck balls anymore.
PYROVORE BROOD..... 35pts per model
3 3 5 4 2 1 2 6 4+
1-3 Pyrovores
Infantry
Acid Blood
Acid Maw
Claws and Teeth
Flamespurt
Hardened Carapace
Instinctive Behavior- Feed
Volatile
The brood may take a Mycetic Spore as a dedicated transport.
Flamespurt
A Flamespurt is a shooting weapon with the following profile.
Template S4 AP3 Assault 1, Instinctive*
*Instinctive: A Pyrovore can fire its Flamespurt even if subject to Instinctive Behavior.
Acid Maw
A Pyrovore's close combat attacks ignore armor saves and roll an additional d6 for armor penetration.
Volatile
If a Pyrovore is killed, it explodes and does a Strength 4 hit to all non-Pyrovore models within d6".
Comments: Oh god fucking Pyrovores. There were a LOT of things that needed to be fixed about these guys, so I kinda had to go through and do a lot of stuff. They got an extra attack and strength, lost 10pts off their cost, had their gun improved to AP3 (albeit with only S4), are better against tanks in melee, and their "explosion" mechanic was simplified. Now they're still suicide units that you want to be dumping into the middle of the enemy formation, but they're actually semi-functional in that role and do a lot of damage to MEQs and TEQs in combat, assuming they can get close enough. Are they great? No, probably not, but they're at least no longer the biggest joke unit in the game.
YMGARL GENESTEALERS..... 23pts per model
6 0 4 4 1 6 2 10 4+
5-10 Ymgarl Genestealers
Infantry
Hardened Carapace
Rending Claws
Flesh Hooks
Alter Form
Brood Telepathy
Dormant
Fleet
Move Through Cover
Comments: They were pretty good before, they didn't need a lot of help. They get grenades and that's it. (Note that BS0 means they can't use the shooting mode on Flesh Hooks.)
To be continued ~~~~~~~!
